Every Thursday, I get a wonderful cartoon postcard in the mail from my dear friend, Don Pickens - of Pickens Pals fame. I got this one and I want to share it with you, it is in response to last week's article. If you missed last week's article, it is available on the impressionengineers site.

I was thinking about how long we had been sending mail back and forth. It has to be over 10 years! As I look through all the cards, it is a snap shot of our lives. I email or talk with Don, and every Thursday comes a wonderful postcard—one side is something from my life, the other side is something from his. Wonderful, just wonderful!

Nothing is more wonderful than long friendships! My sons have been exchanging the same Christmas cards with a family friend for 24 years. Friendships and the traditions created within them are the special points in life... What traditions do you treasure?

To Success! To Life!

Sharon

Focus on what to give our time and attention to.

A friend, Jeff, sent me a link to a death clock website. Morbid as it sounds, I went there and did the little "drill". I got back the "news"... What an awakening moment. I'm not sure I want to know, now that I know. Yes, it's just statistical averages, but still sobering... It's time to focus on what to give time and attention to. We've thought about why our businesses exists. Plus, what goals we want to reach in 2007.(back issues) But, it really is about all aspects of life, not just business, isn't it? What good is a thriving business, if the rest of your life stinks?

Lorrie Morgan Ferrero, Red Hot Copy, brought this process to a MasterMind group I belong to. She has graciously allowed me to share it. It is great for business and life—eye-opening to see what I focus on now. And what I want to change my focus to. Once I started to fill in the days and even half days, I realized I ran out of week long before I ran out of things to do...

Integrate all parts of life. Making sure that what we are going to spend our time on is something we want, not just something that sounds good.

For fun, what numeric order would you put your category list in... Put them in an order that makes the most sense to you.*

After doing this little exercise, one thing I think we can all agree on is everything takes longer than expected.

Time is the most valuable coin in your life.
You and you alone will determine how that coin is spent.
Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.

I’ve had that quote on my wall for years without an attribution. In researching the attribution for this article, I found one similar from Carl Sandburg, however both are probably adapted from, "Time is the most valuable thing one can spend." - Theophrastus.

* Fun little note: How you sequence them could say something about your criteria or where you are placing the majority of your focus.

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Time is the most valuable coin in your life.... A printable Action Quote pdf